High Quality Health Care

Another important aspect to consider when applying for Italian Dual Citizenship is the high quality health care at a fraction of the cost. This in some cases can save your life or avoid bankruptcy.

Italy and the US have completely different approaches to health care. For the uninsured or underinsured, healthcare in the U.S. can be EXTREMELY expensive. As an Italian citizen, you are entitled to apply for your “tessera sanitaria” (health insurance card) to receive Italian healthcare which is world class and much more affordable when compared to healthcare in the States.

Italy has a public-based health system, supported by tax income, as well as a flourishing private insurance market, which is often chosen by Italians as a sort of top up to the standard public “mutua”. Health expenses in Italy, even when going private, tend to be on average much lower than what other Europeans need to pay for private health services in their own countries.

US health expenses are exponentially higher than in the rest of the world especially if compared to Italy. The average US citizen spends much more than his/her Italian counterpart on healthcare each year, and things have not been getting better in recent years.  This, however, is not mirrored in a better healthcare system: life expectancy in Italy is 4 years higher than in the US (83 to 79) and the diffusion and care for specific pathologies is virtually the same in the two countries. Unbiased data like the death of women during childbirth (in the U.S. this is 16 for every 100,000 births and in Italy only 4 deaths for every 100,000), offer more indication on how lower expenses do not mean lower quality healthcare.

In Italy patients, with the exception of emergencies, are treated according to the severity of their condition. Italian citizens who use the system have a regular family doctor, who provides free treatment. If referred to a specialist, patients pay a maximum fee of about €50. In case of serious diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson or cancer the cost of the treatments (i.e. surgery, hospital stay, medicines, etc.) is almost totally covered by the national healthcare system leaving the patient an almost trifling (few euros at most) co-pay, compared with the US where for example a chemotherapy cycle is between $10,000-$200,000 or even more. Just think about the fact that in the US people without health coverage are exposed to enormous costs and this can sometimes lead people without coverage into deep debt or even into bankruptcy. It’s easy to underestimate how much medical care can cost: fixing a broken leg can cost up to $7,500. The average cost of a 3-day hospital stay is around $30,000. Even people with health insurance pay, on average, more than $1,000 out of their pockets for a hospital stay. All these treatments in Italy would be free or almost free with the quality of the healthcare at the highest standard.